


Feels Less Like a Memory

by whatido



Category: Hamilton - Miranda, The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Crossover, Drabble, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 21:45:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13467189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatido/pseuds/whatido
Summary: Turns out there are a lot of parallels between the lives of Alexander Hamilton and P.T. Barnum.  What if there's a reason for that?





	Feels Less Like a Memory

**Author's Note:**

> So while I was in the theater watching The Greatest Showman (which you should definitely do if you haven't already and even if you have, I'll wait) I noticed that it was basically Hamilton Lite. Not only did it owe a lot of its style to Hamilton--that dancing in a period piece would have been much less acceptable before--but the plot was remarkably similar. Mind, the stylistic similarities are likely due to Alex Lacamoire's involvement in both pieces BUT STILL my point stands. Un-betaed.   
> So! What if P.T. Barnum is Hamilton? Because this is fanfiction and we ask that on the regular.
> 
> Enjoy!

After the last time Alexander Hamilton shuts his eyes, he opens them again as Phineas Barnum.

It’s as simple as that.

It is never something he considers important. It just is, like the stars in the sky, only less interesting and a lot less pretty. He doesn’t realize it might be odd or significant at all until he reaches age eight or so and it occurs to him that the vast financial inequality he observes between Charity’s family and his might be an unintentional byproduct of his economic system. Phin doesn’t think of himself as Alexander Hamilton, bastard, orphan, son of a whore, Founding Father, Treasury Secretary. It’s like there’s a whole other set of memories under his eight-year-old mind that lets him look at the world in a different way, like if he were holding a kaleidoscope only, again, less pretty.

As the boy grows he notices that other people don’t seem to have this. He tried mentioning it to his father once, but he just told Phin to keep his mind in the real world and out of his daydreams. After his father dies, there’s no one to talk to and precious little time for wagging his saucebox if he did. And the last thing he wants is for Charity to think he’s off his chump, bad enough he’s poor and her father disapproves.

But he keeps the thought in the back of his head, wondering if there’s any particular reason he was gifted or burdened with this previous life and, more importantly, when it will be of use to him. Because it will be of use, that’s a bottom fact if he ever knew it. With the things he plans to do with his life, the dreams he’ll make a reality, he’ll need every advantage he can get.

After a while, he starts to notice certain… patterns in his lives, like a repeated motif in a piece of music or a formulaic plot in a dime novel. Both times, he pulls himself out of abject poverty and loss by his wits and determination. But what else is he to do? It’s either work or starve and, based on what he recalls from his first time around, he’d really like to live long enough to experience sex. He is enthralled by women, or rather one particular woman each time. For a while he wonders if Charity might be Eliza returned to him, but she gives no indication and Phin ruefully concludes that he simply has predictable taste in women and the stunning good luck and charm to entice them to his side.

The first time he holds little Helen in his arms he is bowled over by the raw power of his love for her and swears to protect her always, whatever else may stand in his way. He marvels that Alexander ever let his firstborn out of his sight, let alone allowed him to enter into a duel. It is this point that he starts to question some of Hamilton’s decisions. He never had before, just accepted them as the way things went. But what if he didn’t have to die in disgrace, the victim of a national scandal of his own making? Could he protect Charity from some of the hurts Eliza suffered? Perhaps. When he got right down to it, that lifetime was over and done with and he had work to do.

A few years down the line—more than a few, if he’s being honest—the reality of his circus catches him off guard one day. Phin is almost breathless, and tearful, as he realizes that he actually managed to bring his dreams to life. Certainly, he had always the drive to bring his dreams into the real world, but he never truly believed he could accomplish anything on the scale that Hamilton had. Now, not only has he made a good life for his family, but he has changed the face of American culture and brought people who once were hidden into the light. His family remains whole and happy. Maybe it isn’t an entire economic system but as things go, Phin figures it’s as good a legacy as anything.

**Author's Note:**

> I used some 19th century slang, which was really enjoyable to google.  
> Saucebox- mouth, especially among the lower classes  
> Off his chump- crazy  
> Bottom fact- accepted truth


End file.
